| Advantages of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials over traditional mild steel in reinforced concrete applications include high-strength, lightweight, non-corrosive, non-conducting, and non-magnetic properties. Though these advantages give FRP materials design appeal, the consideration of their purely elastic behavior should be understood before put into structural applications.; With proper reinforcement ratios, excessive deflections can be physically observed before a material failure in the mild steel or concrete can occur, thus providing an adequate warning system if service loads are exceeded, but remain under ultimate loads. The ductile properties of the mild steel are a main key in providing this warning system before catastrophic failure can occur.; The objective of this research is to predict and validate the ductility behavior of concrete flexural members reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and mild steel. By comparing analytical moment-curvature predictions and actual moment-curvature values, this objective is attained. |
